1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an apparatus for measuring the efficiency of a system-on-a-chip and a method thereof. More specifically, the present invention is directed to an apparatus and a method for measuring the efficiency of a system-on-a-chip that can be operated on a platform having an Ethernet DMA (Direct Memory Access) and a bus configuration.
2. Description of the Related Art
As demand for electronic devices, such as TV sets, refrigerators, mobile phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant), and laptop computers, increases, electronic circuits are required to be micro-sized and have low-power consumption.
Furthermore, the development of the semiconductor manufacturing technology has contributed to an increase of the number of circuit elements on a single chip. Accordingly, a memory, a microprocessor, and a coprocessor, which have been on individual chips, respectively, can all be embedded on a single chip. Each component embedded on the single chip is referred to as an intellectual property (IP), and a chip composed of a set of IP components is referred to as a system-on-a-chip (SoC).
The concept of the IP has suggested a new idea to semiconductor design in that the existing IPs are reusable in other systems. That is, in designing a SoC, it is not necessary to design every IP to be embedded on a chip. Instead, a desired SoC can be manufactured by installing IPs, which had previously been designed, on a chip. If the IP is reused in such a manner, approximately 50% of the SoC manufacturing is done so that the time for designing the SoC can be reduced by more than half. Efficiency of the SoC manufactured by packaging all the IPs is measured by a SoC efficiency measuring apparatus.
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a conventional apparatus measuring the SoC efficiency. Referring to FIG. 1, a SoC efficiency measuring apparatus 100 includes a first Ethernet 101, a second Ethernet 103, a controller 105, and a Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) 107.
The first Ethernet 101 is connected to a first smartbit 120, and the second Ethernet 103 is connected to a second smartbit 130. The first smartbit 120 is connected with a certain IP (not shown) embedded on the SoC, and the second smartbit 130 is connected with another certain IP (not shown) embedded on the SoC. The first smartbit 120 measures the number of frames per a given time period, transmission time between frames, and Network Address Translation (NAT) efficiency with respect to data received from the certain IP to which the first smartbit 120 is connected. The second smartbit 130 measures the number of frames per a given time period, transmission time between frames, and Network Address Translation (NAT) efficiency with respect to data received from the certain IP to which the second smartbit 130 is connected.
The controller 105 receives the measured values of data received from the certain IPs measured by the first and second smartbits 120, 130 and also data to be transmitted to other IPs. The controller 105 transmits the values measured by the first and second smartbits 120 and 130 to the UART 107.
The UART 107 receives data through a parallel circuit of the SoC efficiency measuring apparatus 100 in a byte unit and converts the data into a single serial bit stream for transmission to a computer 140. The UART 107 also converts the serial bit stream received from the computer 140 into data of a byte unit.
The data, which are measured by the first and second smartbits 120, 130, are transmitted to the computer 140 and displayed on a displayer (not shown) of the computer 140. Then, a user can determine the efficiency of the SoC based on the displayed data.
However, the conventional apparatus for measuring the SoC efficiency can only measure the SoC efficiency if the manufacturing of the SoC has been completed since each of the IPs on the SoC has to be operating. Otherwise, it is not possible to measure the efficiency of the SoC.
In addition, the conventional apparatus requires smartbit testing apparatuses connected to each of the IPs and has to be connected to a computer in order to measure and determine the efficiency. Thus, a lot of apparatuses have to be operating in order to measure the efficiency of the SoC.